


Not a rescue.

by QueenyClairey



Series: Tentacletober [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Capture, Day 4, M/M, Rescue, Tentacletober, alec is the captain of a ship, first time touching tentacles, magnus lives in the sea, meet cute, save the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 18:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20916572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenyClairey/pseuds/QueenyClairey
Summary: Day 4: Tentacletober: Save the Day!Magnus is in the sea, enjoying his birthday when he's scooped up in a net and ends up on board a 'swip'!Not quite tentacles save the day, or anyone saves the day really....Enjoy!





	Not a rescue.

Magnus was having the best eighteenth birthday ever! His best friend Catarina collected him that morning and told him she had permission for them to visit the deepest part of the ocean over 20 kilometres away!

Magnus had wanted to go there since he was a tiny boy but his father had always refused. He thought Magnus was weak and wouldn’t have the strength to swim all the way there and back. But Magnus knew he was wrong and had waited in the hope that one day his father would change his mind - and today was the day!

“Magnus are you ready?” Catarina asked, her inky tentacles curling around her like a cloud. They were beautiful, more beautiful than Magnus’ pale caramel ones, he thought. For his birthday he has asked the sea witch if she would streak some of his tenti’s a beautiful coral pink, but her price had been too high, so Magnus was leaving with his usual tentacles on display.

“Race you?” he asked his friend, coiling his tentacles ready for a powerful start.

Their race lasted almost 10 kilometres, before Catarina suggested they slow down and take a look at the sea bed around them. As it was his birthday, she offered him the chance to pick any shells he liked and helped him to make them into a beautiful necklace that he hung around his neck with his others. Several of them were ones his mother had once worn and he protected them with his life.

They were busy trying to find some seaweed to take back for Madzie, when a dark shape above them blocked the sunlight and cooled the sea. Magnus recoiled in surprise, but Catarina was older and wiser and held him tightly.

“It’s just a swip, Magnus. Nothing to worry about.”

“A swip? What’s one of those?”

“It’s what the oomans use to swim in the sea cos they don’t have tentis like us!” Catarina said knowledgeably as they both swam in circles staring up at the strange object.

“Shall we go look at it closer?” Magnus asked, circling a little higher as an object launched itself into the water and started to move towards them.

“No!” Catarina said, all her tentacles reaching out for him as he was suddenly grabbed by a large piece of material and pulled quickly towards the ‘swip’.

He felt her tentis grab onto his own and he desperately held on as he was dragged towards the surface. But as his head breached the water, he lost his grip as his tentacles retracted into his body and vanished.

When he was dropped in a heap, along with many small fish, onto the rough wooden surface, he gasped as his gills vanished and he had to start breathing through his mouth. It was a shock to his system and something he had rarely done before, so it took him several huge gulps of air before he was breathing normally.

“What’s that? How’d we get a man?” A voice suddenly yelled near his sensitive ears. He was used to gentle sounds, made bubbly by the water, not this guttural scream.

Suddenly a hand was roughly prodding his shoulder and then hauling him to stand unsteadily on his legs. He rocked around, unable to balance properly, as the ship moved under him before someone took pity and he was guided to sit down.

“Captain? We got something strange here!” Another yell, Magnus covered his ears, taking more shaky breaths.

A soft hand lifted his chin upwards and his eyes met warm hazel. “Who are you?” The voice was calmer, less angry, quieter. It didn’t hurt him like the others. But Magnus didn’t know what to say. 

Then an arm was resting around his shoulders, tugging him to his feet and pulling him down below and into a warm space. He was dropped gently onto something soft and he automatically curled himself up, missing the swirl of his tentacles that would normally protect him. He could feel them prickling below the surface of his skin, desperate to escape. But around these oomans, could he let them out?

“I’m Captain Alexander Lightwood,” the man said, resting beside him, his body heat pouring into Magnus, “This is The Idris, the finest ship in our kingdom. Who are you? Where did you come from to be so far out at sea alone? Were you left behind by your ship?”

Magnus didn’t know how to reply. Could he tell this man that he lived in the sea?

When he didn’t speak, the other man was clearly uncomfortable and filled the silence, “Well clearly you’ve been abandoned and left alone. So either you mutinied or you were kicked off your ship, or you were a stowaway. None of these things are ideal, but I’m not the kind of captain who agrees with punishing people by leaving them at sea, so I guess I’ve saved you from that fate at least. Do you need food? Water?”

What Magnus needed was to get away from these people. Get off this ship and back to Cat. Cat who would probably be tailing the ship, but who could run out of energy anytime now if this went on much longer. 

“Of course you’ll need both,” the captain said, standing up, his warmth leeching away and making Magnus shiver. Alec immediately noticed his reaction and reached for a blanket that he wrapped around Magnus’ shoulders, saying, “My sister Isabelle made this for me. She said I should keep it with me at all times for luck. And luck brought me to you, I mean, made my ship find you, so I guess it’s right for you to use it to stay warm.”

Then he stepped away and opened the door to the cabin, exiting, his voice carrying into the room as he left. “Able Seaman, go to the chef and…”

The door closed behind him, cutting off his instructions and Magnus shucked off the blanket, immediately dashing to the door to open it a crack and peek out. Unfortunately, the captain was still in the corridor, hand in his hair as he watched the men around him rush about their jobs. No escape that way.

Magnus was investigating the small porthole and trying to decide if he would fit through it, when the door behind him opened and the captain came back in. 

“Oh my goodness,” he said, “I didn’t think you might feel ill and need some air. You can open that of course.” Then he swept over to Magnus’ side and slid open the window, his shoulder knocking into Magnus’ as he did. “Oh sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to…” he seemed pretty flustered as he pulled away and then stopped, turned, and handed Magnus the tankard he had clutched in his hand.

“It’s soup. For you, to make you feel a little better...I hope.” he coughed, then looked away for a second and took a step back towards the door. Magnus’ heart soared at the thought that the man had gotten him something to make him feel better, that he cared if he was comfortable. It felt wonderful. In all his eighteen years, he hadn’t met another creature with whom he would like to mate more. But he knew that wasn’t possible. This man couldn’t live in the sea anymore than Magnus could survive on the land.

The tickling under his skin was becoming a restless itching now as his tentacles writhed below, desperate for the chance to be free again. As soon as he was alone, he would release them. Unless he managed to escape back to the water before then.

“I’m sorry. For insinuating that you’re a criminal.” Alec said hesitantly, eyes flickering over Magnus as he pretended to drink the soup. It smelled like fish, and it was making his stomach turn at the thought of eating his brethren, so he placed it down on the small table beside the bunk. “You don’t like it?” Magnus watched in surprise as the man tugged on strands of his own hair, clearly agitated that Magnus didn’t want to eat the soup. 

It was making Magnus feel bad, watching this man who just wanted to help him, stress out. He had to do something. 

So he took a step towards him and pulled his hands from his head, holding them gently in his own. Then he summoned his voice from somewhere deep inside and spoke, “It’s...okay.”

Alec’s eyes widened at his words, and then they locked on his. Magnus couldn’t look away. The man was beautiful. If only he had tentacles, he would be the perfect mate. 

“You can speak!” Alec said, hands squeezing Magnus’ own. As he did, Magnus felt one of his tentis slither down his arm. It was moving slowly, but it wouldn’t take long for it to touch the captain’s hands. 

He jerked himself away, dropping Alec’s hands and wrapped one of his own around the errant tenti, trying to calm it. He had just felt it go limp in his grip when a second, and then a third wormed their way out of his skin and curled about his forearms like snakes. 

Magnus panicked. He couldn’t let the captain see him like this. What would he think? He would kill him. Magnus had heard all the stories from his father. Knew that his mother had been killed by a ooman years before when they spotted her in the ocean, tentacles swirling around her beautifully.

They hadn’t understood what she was, his father had said. Hadn’t found her unique and special, had hunted her and killed her and made her suffer.

He wasn’t safe here.

“Need...space,” he managed to say, words sounding foreign on his tongue.

“Of course...of course…” The captain said, backing away from him, but not leaving the cabin. Magnus ground his teeth in frustration as yet another of his tentacles began to creep out. At this rate, he would be fully on display in this tiny room and the captain would be calling for his men to attack him and kill him. Magnus heart clenched at the thought that this is where he was going to die. That this would be the last thing he would see - not the clear salty ocean, or Catarina’s glowing smile, or his father’s stern expression or the beautiful pink coral that was his home. 

His panic brought more and more tentis to the surface of his skin and he felt them begin to pop out one by one seeking to comfort him. 

It was no use, he was going to be on display in mere seconds, exposed to this ooman. 

He closed his eyes tightly, back still to the captain as he tried to control himself. But his tentacles wouldn’t listen. They knew he was in distress and they would not be held back.

The sudden gasp from behind him made it clear that what he was feeling was real. Every one of his tentacles had broken the surface and they were curling about his body in long vines, trying to protect him. 

Magnus froze. Absolutely still, tentis finally obeying him. 

The man behind him coughed. He coughed three times, and then Magnus heard his whisper, “What...what are you?”

Magnus whirled around to face the ooman, wanting nothing more than to push past him and head for the sea, but he couldn’t, Alec was between him and the doorway.

“What am I?” he repeated, face alight with fury now at being trapped, at being caught, at being so stupid that the oomans had him. His tentacles swirled around him in response, creating a protective cage around his body, ready to fight for him. 

But the captain didn’t look angry. Didn’t look like he was going to start attacking Magnus. He just looked...curious. Like Madzie when she learnt something new.

“I mean…” Alec started again, “I’ve just never seen anyone quite like you before. I’m okay with surprises. I just didn’t expect…”

“Me? My tentacles? That there are creatures of the sea who are like you oomans, but with special powers?” Magnus asked, voice fully open now as he faced the man with blazing golden eyes. 

“I never knew. No-one has ever spoken of your kind.” The man admitted as he gazed at Magnus. His hand was twitching by his side and Magnus wondered if he wanted to have a knife or a sword to slash at him with. Wondered if that’s how he was going to die. Maybe the man’s wonder was just a ruse to make him relax. 

“Well, we exist. And that’s my home.” Magnus said, one tentacle slithering to the window and pointing out at the sea. 

“And we took you from it? We thought we were rescuing a man, but really we were stealing you from your family. I’m so sorry!” His hand reached up and he glided his fingers over one of Magnus’ tentis, causing him to shiver. No one had ever touched them quite like that, with such reverence and such interest. He couldn’t help but press forward so several of his fronds were touching the man’s soft skin. 

“Do you…do you like that?” he managed to ask, every sucker on fire as they touched the man’s soft hairy skin. His own hands were still holding back several of his tentis as he didn’t want to overwhelm the man.

“It’s like...like every nerve is being stroked at once. It’s incredible!” Alec said, voice alight with wonder as Magnus’ tentacles continued to snuffle over his skin. “Do you...do you like it?”

“You feel, different. Not like a sea creature. Not like anything I’ve ever touched before. It feels, good.” Magnus admitted as they continued to stare. “I want to touch more. Can I touch more?”

Captain Alec moaned at the thought and then he moved towards the door and flicked the lock closed, the tentacles never moving from his body. “Yes,” he said, “You can touch more.”

**Author's Note:**

> That one ran away with me...and it's late...and I'm not sure what's happening tbh!


End file.
